See Images of Flooding

In the spring of 1927, America witnessed its greatest natural disaster to date: a flood which brought more than 30 feet of water over land inhabited by nearly one million people. 
Viosca documented the people and land affected by the floods of 1922 and 1927.  Viosca was an advocate for natural flushing of the waterways to prevent coastal erosion and severe flooding.  Viosca argued that regular flushing of these areas by the rivers was a positive action for the environment and its wildlife; levees interfered with this. As Director of the Division of Fisheries for the Department of Conservation between 1926 and 1929, Viosca wrote a number of technical bulletins and articles advising against building levees along the Mississippi River which would stop the flow into the natural flood plains such as the Tensas and Atchafalaya bottomlands. He also wanted the southern marshlands to receive fresh water through siphons and controlled floodways.


Flooded hall

Internet Archive
Short silent film produced by the Signal Corps of the Mississippi flood of 1927
http://www.archive.org/details/mississippi_flood_1927

American Experience Fatal Flood
Public Broadcasting Service
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/index.html

The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History
Louisiana State University
Collection of interviews from Louisianian’s who experienced the Flood of 1927.
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/williams/

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
Winner of the 1998 Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians for the year's best book on American history.
http://johnmbarry.com/